Sunday smiles...

Remember the Easter little contest Lucy won? When I asked what Toska was looking at? It was a bird, Lucy guessed it right and here is the whole picture!

Isn't she funny? I swear she seriously thought it's a live bird, she was staring at it in a very concentrated way and I just had to take it away fast! I thought cats were more intelligent! :) :)
The bird was a birthday gift for my Polish friend Ela in France, among other goodies. I added a Tilda crown to mark the birthday occasion :) Ela liked it a lot and I was delighted! Some more pictures:






Seriously, Toska was perplexed...


Last week, I was on a jewellery-making course... another great evening. Our goal was to learn and make a matching necklace-and-earings set and here is the one I made, totally in my style, for more dressed-up occasions. The technique we learned was working with a steel wire, I've yet to learn everything else but it certainly was a great start! I'm such a jewellery junkie :) How do you like it?


I stitched a delightful little sampler by With My Needle (hope I remember right) - but I'll do the finishing on it.... in the fall, no time for that now. With all the birthdays in May/June within my family and stitching friends, I'm much too busy. Ah, and then all the exchanges too :)
The chart came with the backing sampler fabric, fabric and thread, and I must say I just love the way the colors play together.

Harmien's birthday giftie is still winging its way to her... I've heard the PO workers were on a local strike so I really hope the package went out as planned when I sent it last week.

Private stuff? As I'm mentioning on top of the blog, I'm flying to Norway for the summer on May 27th, in just ten days. We've delayed my flight from the original date this week because I was way too delayed in my preparations, all the visits at the doctors, checks etc. When you leave for 3 months, you gotta prepare well or else you'll forget on the table the one thing you can't leave without. And I'm sure it will take me a whole night just to prepare the stash I plan to take along!
PLEASE don't send anything anymore to Poland till September. Ask me or Mylene for my Norwegian address instead if you don't have it! Otherwise I'll make an arrangement with the person who'll take care of my mail to have some mail sent to me but I'd like to limit it as much as possible to reduce the burden on her.
My high blood pressure is still high but not as dangerous as it was (190/150) so I'm leaving... I've been put on zillions of pills and I just HATE it. Hate it. Fortunately, I'm starting to feel better but the first two weeks were atrocious, I was feeling week and out of breath whatever I did. Was told this came from lowering my pressure so much very fast. Still worried about the whole issue, but apart from modifiying my (already healthy) diet and exercise even more, what can I do? Loosing weight will surely help, but with the other doc talking about PCOS, that combined with an underactive thyroid, the task is very hard.
The week has been very busy again, so I apologize for visiting your blogs without leaving many comments - I certainly visit at yours! :)
Yesterday I had dental surgery to extract a nasty wisdom teeth. The whole op' took over 2h15... and I'll spare you the details, but it was gore and I was told "you know, it really happens extremely rarely, cases like yours". Humpfffff. It was pure torture being made on a live body ;-) but really, with the way technologies have developed, pain wasn't a problem for the most part. They gave me 9 injections in total to make it a pain-free procedure, at least that :) I was joking with Ela on Skype today that the fact that the surgeon was a stunningly handsome young man helped a lot too :)
So I've been keeping it slow this week-end, applying ice on the cheek, taking antibiotics and painkillers. Doesn't hurt but (not sure if it's due to how hard my case was) I'm still swelling after a day and a half, I have a head like a tire, really scary actually! :) I now have fiever and the cheek is very hot despite all I'm taking and doing against it, so I might have to show at the clinic tomorrow morning. Good thing they're on the next street. Aaack, it was a very complicated surgery. Do we all have FOUR wisdom teeth? If so then I hope it'll take some time before any of the others give any pain, with my luck! LOL
Wish me a speedy recovery :) and have all a lovely week!!

Etsy pleasures...

Melissa, I'll answer right away with pleasure.

These fantastic mice are the original work of Anna, a UK gal from Holland. She's created a whole world, a whole dynasty of these mice, and I am just one of many, many people who have a very soft spot for them! I wish I could afford a whole collection. In real, they're even more cute!

When I saw the female (Anna often makes male and female versions) Traveling mouse, shown in my previous post, I just knew it had to be mine. Just like the Traveling Stitcher, the recent LHN chart :)

Then I asked Anna if she could make a cross-stitching mouse! And do you know what? Within a few hours, really, she designed and sewed one for me. She originally wanted to include a hoop, but that proved too difficult, so she asked me if that one could do.

Of course, I loved it!! Isn't she super adorable? My pictures are not very good, I took them at night before leaving, so I'll refer you to the original photos (below).

If you visit The House of Mouse shop, you'll find dozens of the finest, cutest, most intriguing mice, representing different jobs, cultures, hobbies, and what else.
I don't think that the stitching mouse if on regular sale, but tell Anna you come from the Polish girl to whom she sent to Norway last year... And I'm also sure she can make any original mouse after your idea if you ask nicely! :)
I think they make such great gifts also.

Anna's etsy shop is HERE.
You can see the original Traveling mouse HERE
and the Stitching mouse HERE, enjoy!

Can you really resist the birthday mouse? I have to get that one one day. Though I'll probably ask Anna for a different outfit, since one of mine is dressed the same.

At the same time, I'll grab the occasion to show you the necklace that was waiting for me.... I am not sure if I ever mentioned, but I am a jewelery junkie... Never enough necklaces and earings, I say!

which was so nicely packed...

This one is from Susan at sdvintagecollection.

In December, I won a gift certificate from lillyella and here is what I chose...

Nicole has her own original style and I'm the lucky owner of many of her pieces...

I hope visiting these three shops will inspire you!

I'm stitching tonight on CHS' Strawberry blonde... I can't tell how much it is enjoyable. The colors are so well matched, so elegant. Ah, I wish their recent charts were.... different than what they are, really!

Yeah, I know it looks weird.. but the reason I stitched this long vertical strip first is that the chart is in two parts which overlap. And I so hate charts that overlap this way! So, I wanted to have it done and now I'm concentrating on all the left part which is all on one sheet of paper.

Till tomorrow.... lots and lots to show! :) Have a quiet, relaxing week-end, everyone and thanks for stopping by! Remember, if you don't leave me a comment, I can't get to know you :)